Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy still has a challenge to compete with the big teams in Europe (Image: Getty)

It can all be addressed by ripping up that wage bill to ensure that the club’s top stars are not turning up to international duty embarrassed by the pay packets dwarfed by less capable counterparts from rival clubs.

But nobody who watched Tottenham slaughter Arsenal on Sunday can be in any doubt about which team in north London has the most to build on right now.

Point to the finance, the wages, the Twitter followers, the global renown and, of course, the trophies and Arsenal clearly have stolen a massive march over the last two decades.

Yet the brutal nature of football means that the heroics of yesteryear can quickly be consigned to the history books once the sands are shifted.

Sir Alex Ferguson took his time in making Manchester United one of the leading forces in Europe (Image: REUTERS)

Take Manchester United. The club that pretty much dominated the Premier League for 20 years have finished in the top four just once since Sir Alex Ferguson’s exit in 2013.

Liverpool ruled English football during the seventies and Eighties but have never won the Premier League. They have also failed, since 2009, to hold down a regular place in the top four.

Tottenham's resurgence appears to have come at the end of an era for Arsenal. For all of Wenger's defiance he is football's version of King Canute, fighting furiously to delay the inevitable.

A growing number of fans want him out, Alexis Sanchez wants out, the club are set to finish out of the top four and even a third FA Cup in four years (beating non-league Lincoln and Sutton along the way) will paper over a poor season for the Gunners.

Alexis Sanchez could leave Arsenal at the end of the season (Image: Getty)

The irony for Wenger is that it is his continued presence at Arsenal that gives Spurs their best chance of keeping the Gunners in their shadow now.

Largely because Pochettino is a man with the kind of impact on the squad that Wenger had when he arrived at Highbury 20 years ago.

If Levy backs the Argentine to build from a position of strength they will not be as easy to put back in their box as Wenger thinks.